Riteway Meat Company - Pepperoni Tid-Bits

The cool thing about the Internet is that it lets us city-slicker geek types gain access to junk food found exclusively in the rural areas of America's back country.

That is, if someone in the rural area of America's back country is set up for e-commerce.

Riteway Meat Company is one such entity. Basically a butcher shop serving local ranchers and hunters in the small town of Dundee, OR. They sell beef jerky and other meat snacks though their website. Junk foodies like me living in the suburbia of Southern California can now enjoy processed meat munchies the way real, honest-to-God, down to earth folks make it, without having to drive a thousand miles to get there.

Actually, I didn't buy these Pepperoni Tid-Bits. They sent it to me for free, after I ordered a few packages of their beef jerky. I didn't tell them that I publish food blogs, so maybe they're just really hospitable, friendly, country folks. Anyways, I figured I had to return the favor by giving them some free pub here on JFB.

These do have the flavor of pepperoni, but a little more mild than what I'm accustomed to getting from atop of pizza or italian sub sandwich. They're quite flavorful, rather salty, and smoky. They don't have any of the papery chewing texture that a Slim Jim has, but rather quite sausage-like.




These "tid-bits" are named such because Riteway sells a longer variety, at 5 feet in length. You actually buy it that long.

So I'm guessing these tid-bits are like the ends they chop off after measuring out 5 feet of meat rope.

The size and shape of these Pepperoni Tid-Bits are quite comparable to a package of Little Smokies, except these are a little more stiff. I think they'd still do quite well simmering in a Crock Pot of BBQ sauce, or cooking in a pan of beans.

Riteway prices a package of tid-bits at $8.99 a pound. The package depicted above weighed 0.68 pounds, for a price of $6.11.

I recommend a lightly flavored pale ale, or a cream ale, to go with these.

Visit Riteway Meat Company online...

http://ritewaymeat.com

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Jamba Juice's New Blackberry Smoothie

Jamba Juice announced today the national rollout of a limited time only seasonal smoothie, the "Blackberry Bliss".

The new flavor is part of Jamba Juice's summer promotion, "Summer Bliss". It's made with whole fruit including blackberries, blueberries and strawberries.

With the Summer Bliss promotion, customers can earn coupons and prizes by uploading a photo of their faces to Jamba Juice's new website, and paste the photos over action scenes.

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Chick-fil-A Offers New Peach Milkshake

Chick-fil-A announced today that it is adding a new peach flavor to its line of Hand-Spun Milkshakes for the summer. The Peach Milkshake will be offered as a limited-time flavor from June 1 through Aug. 22 at the chain's mall and stand-alone restaurants nationwide.

The new peach flavor is made with real peaches and is hand-spun with Chick-fil-A's "Icedream", and topped with light whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.

It's fitting enough the company come out with a peach flavored shake, being Chick-fil-A is based in Georgia, the "Peach State".

Coinciding with the Peach Milkshake rollout, Chick-fil-A will also introduce a smaller milkshake option that will remain on the menu permanently. Chick-fil-A Milkshakes will be offered in 14 oz. or 20 oz. cups and priced at $2.49 and $2.89, respectively (at most locations).

Since Chick-fil-A first introduced its line of Hand-Spun Milkshakes in May 2006, the desserts have proved to be one of the most popular products on the menu. Building upon its increasing milkshake momentum, the chain has added limited-time flavors to its milkshake menu annually. Chick-fil-A offered a Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake in 2007, followed by a Coffee Caramel Milkshake last spring and a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake during the holidays last year.

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Quiznos Launches New Turkey Subs

Quiznos, the chain of fast-food sandwich shops, announced today the introduction of two new turkey sub sandwiches to its menu, beginning June 1, 2009...

• Cool Turkey Caesar: lettuce, diced tomatoes, peppercorn Caesar dressing and a blend of cheeses paired with oven-roasted turkey and creamy mozzarella cheese.


• Crisp Turkey Bacon Swiss: lettuce, diced tomatoes and creamy ranch dressing paired with oven-roasted turkey, smoked bacon and creamy Swiss cheese.

The two new sandwiches are part of Quiznos' "SummerTastes" promotion, which are designed to offer cool, crisp, fresh, sandwiches to combat the hot, sweltering heat of the lunch hour.

The new subs start at $4.39 for a small, $5.39 for a regular and $6.89 for a large.

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Jim Beam Red Stag - Black Cherry Bourbon

The makers of Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon announced a new variant called "Red Stag", basically the same bourbon they've always made, except with a touch of black cherry flavor.

It's not a liqueur, it's not cough syrup, but actual straight 80 proof bourbon, just like what you might take a shot of, or mix with with Coke. Except it has some fruity flavor to it.

Through a unique infusion process, they introduce natural black cherry flavor to their four-year-old Jim Beam Bourbon. The tasting notes are said to be distinctively fruity, without disguising the familiar scent of Jim Beam Bourbon.

Red Stag is said to go on sale to the public in June 2009.

My best guess on why Jim Beam would market straight kentucky bourbon with a fruit flavor is to go after a younger consumer base, or better yet, women.

Women seem to love alcohol with some kind of fruitiness to it. In fact, the marketing materials that Jim Beam is developing for Red Stag depicts 20-something year old women, partying up. Next month they'll launch a media campaign with Kid Rock.

The bottle will continue to have the "Jim Beam" name, and will look very similar to a Jim Beam bottle, with its square shape, and familiar white logoed cap. Red Stag is a way to extent brand familiarity to a young hip consumer, until one day that consumer becomes old and fat and is ready for the real thing.

Read a taste review at Liquor Snob.

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Hiyoko - Baby Chick Pastry

Before there were marshmallow peeps, there was "hiyoko". It's a traditional japanese confection, usually presented in a pastry, such as this.

This is filled with a sweet lima bean paste, and surrounded in a pastry bun shaped like a baby chick. But they can also come in other types of confection, candy, cookie, chocolate, etc.

Hiyoko has been around for generations, invented by a pastry maker in 1912. It's a reflection of Japan's love affair with nature, finding grace in simplicity, and anything that's cute. That itself (minus the cute part) stems further from Japan's national religion, Shinto Buddhism.

The pastry bun itself has a sweet flavor, similar to that of King's Hawaiian Bread, but not as soft. This is a little more dry.

The sweet lima bean paste inside is eerily similar to that of an egg yolk, in terms of color and consistency, which is interesting considering the baby chick theme. It's just sweet tasting, and tastes nothing like an egg yolk. This paste, however, does include egg yolk as an ingredient.

I've had these before while growing up as a kid, but it's been years since the last time I've had one of these. I think these would actually be tastier with a cream filling, like custard or something.




I bought this at the Mitsuwa Market in San Diego, but I'm sure you can find these at any Mitsuwa Market, and at most Japanese food stores, if not this particular brand, but others too.

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Let's Party with Dried Crabs!

Found this package of dried, roasted baby crabs, with sesame seeds at a japanese grocery store in San Diego last Wednesday.


I thought it was cute with the "Let's Party" call-to action.

No, I didn't try it.

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Cracker Barrel - A Review

Last weekend, while my wife and I drove home from a trip to the Grand Canyon, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kingman, AZ.

The Cracker Barrel is a chain of restaurants that serve the usual Americana fare of breakfasts, burgers, steaks, pretty much what you might expect to find at any family-style restaurant.

But they have a "country store" that sells candies, books, clothing, knick-knacks, toys, resembling something you might expect to find on an episode of the Andy Griffith show.

They're also known for selling wooden rocking chairs that sit on display outside the restaurant on the front patio.

But it's mostly their restaurant that attracts locals.

Cracker Barrel started in 1969 with a location in Tennessee, built around an "old country store" theme where travelers could get "home style" cooking, where kids could get some candy, and moms could shop for souvenirs. And then it just spread from there.

You typically find Cracker Barrel restaurants in towns where folks still hold on to "core values", where NASCAR is always on the front page, and where people still cling to their guns and their religion.

We don't have Cracker Barrel restaurants in California, but yet the chain claims to have locations in 41 states.

Awesome Pancakes!

Make a point to visit a Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and get one of their pancake breakfasts, which comes with three buttermilk pancakes, two eggs, and two sausage or bacon.

The pancakes have crispy edges. I think they fry them with lots of oil. In fact, I think they might fry them on the same griddle as with all the other food, because my wife's pancakes showed bits of burnt bacon. To a junk foodie, that only makes the pancakes better.

I've had pancakes at IHOP, and Denny's, and even at The Original Pancake House, and I'm sorry, but Cracker Barrel beats them out.

Here's photos...














Visit Cracker Barrel online for locations..

http://www.crackerbarrel.com

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Mollicoolz Shakers - Perfecting the Milkshake

MolliCoolz, a brand of frozen beaded ice cream, has a product line called "Shakers". It's found in the freezer aisle of grocery stores.

It's a cup filled with their pelletized ice cream beads. You pour milk into it, and then shake. You end up with a colorful, flavorful, milkshake.

Shakers are currently available in four flavors, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and cookies n cream.

You can find them in most grocery store chains, as well as Wal-mark Supercenters, priced around $2.00 per cup.

Check out the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SbJP4u5HQk

Visit Mollicoolz online at:
http://www.mollicoolz.com/

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Fazoli's Introduces New Menu

Fazoli's, the chain of fast-food italian fare, is introducing a new menu to better compete against the on-slaught of burger and mexican food joints.

Tortellini & Sun-Dried Tomato Rustico, pictured below, is made fresh with sun-dried tomato sauce, artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with a basil pesto drizzle.



They also have a new Chicken Piccata, described as linguini with creamy marinara, sliced grilled chicken, capers, broccoli and a lemon wedge.

The new entrees start are priced at $5.49, and come with Fazoli's signature unlimited breadsticks.

Also in the new line up is their Fire-Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Submarinos, their Cranberry & Walnut Chicken Salad, and new dessert items, Chocolate Chip Cannolis, and Choco-Lato Mousse.

To encourage fast-foodies to try its new menu, Fazoli's is offering some money-saving deals at a special website, http://www.freespaghetti.com.

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Carl's Jr. Portobello Mushroom Burger is Back

Carl's Jr. announced today that it's bringing back the Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger, permanently starting right now.

The fan-favorite burger was originally introduced in 2005 for a limited time, and then again in 2007.

The burger is just a standard Six Dollar Burger, but with slices of portobello mushroom sauteed in garlic-butter sauce, along with swiss cheese.

During its initial appearance on the Carl's Jr. menu in 2005, The Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger won the product award for excellence from Produce Business Magazine, and was among a handful of menu items profiled by USA Today for a trend story on fast-food going gourmet.

Carl's Jr. is also offering a coupon for a free Portobello Mushroom Six Dollar Burger with the purchase of a $20 Carl's Jr. gift card. Gift cards can be purchased in restaurants or online at http://www.carlsjr.com/giftcards/.

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Doodles Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Doodles Cookies is a new brand of cookies focusing on cookie lovers who want to snack on organic ingredients. They're sole offering at this point is an organic chocolate chip cookie mix.

However, they're getting set to launch a gluten-free sugar cookie mix next month.

Deborah Sievers, owner of Doodles Cookies, is an avid cook who first got the idea for marketing her cookie mix after winning two awards from Chile Pepper magazine for an original chocolate chip cookie recipe. She used only organic products in her chocolate chip cookie mix in order to appeal to the growing population of organic food buyers...

"I had been looking for a healthy, good-tasting alternative cookie to make for family and friends. My goal was to make an organic cookie that was healthy and also delicious."

The new gluten-free sugar cookie that she's coming out with next month is her entry into growing market of hypoallergenic foods.

The Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix is currently available on the company's web site:

http://doodlescookies.com

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Carl's Jr Kentucky Bourbon Burger - Review

Last March, the Carl's Jr chain of fast food joints introduced their newest burger, the Kentucky Bourbon Burger.

They had sent me a coupon for a free burger, and today I finally got around to having one for lunch.

The inspiration for this burger starts with the fact that burger joints today are in a rat race over finding new and usual burger recipes to attract impulse junk foodies like me. But this particular idea for a Kentucky Bourbon comes from all the bourbon and whiskey infused BBQ sauces that many steak houses and rib joints utilize.

The burger itself doesn't have any alcohol in it, the company notes that it's "0 proof". Rather, it's just the unique sauce that makes this burger. Aside from that, it comes with crispy, seasoned onion straws, a slice of pepperjack cheese, and bacon.

The burger comes in three sizes, single ($2.99), double ($3.99), and Six Dollar Burger ($4.89).

Taste

I got the Six Dollar Burger variety.

To sum it up, the sauce is very tasty. It's very sweet, but tangy, and spicy. It does indeed have that "bourbon" flavor, with a caramel character, and that spicy bite that create a light burn on the tongue. But mostly, it's a very sweet sauce.

Unfortunately, the Carl's Jr location (Menifee, CA, Newport Rd) that built my burger forgot to add the crispy onion straws. I think that would have really made the burger better.


Otherwise, I thought it made a for a tasty burger. I would have been happier with more sauce however. Since that's really what makes this burger, they need to put more, enough so that it runs all down my hands and arms.

I'm probably a littled miffed I didn't get the crispy onion straws, but then again I got this burger for free. The coupon said that I would still have to pay sales tax, but the girl working the drive-thru didn't ask me for it.

I suppose a rash of mediocre help at fast food joints is what prevents companies like Carl's Jr from gaining more traction with the general populace. They come up with great burger ideas, but have to rely on apathetic teens to put it together.

By the way, I didn't have a bottle of Kentucky Bourbon to go with the burger, but I did have a bottle of Tennessee Whiskey.

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Bob Evans Restaurant New Appetizers

The Bob Evans chain of restaurants announced today the launch of new appetizers to its menu...

• Blue Ribbon Apple Pie Fries, dusted with powdered sugar and served with caramel dipping sauce.


• Loaded Baked Potato Bites, stuffed with cheddar cheese and bacon.


• Bob Evans Wildfire(TM) Chicken Quesadilla made with slow-roasted chicken and topped with Wildfire BBQ sauce, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and cheeses.


• County Fair Cheese Bites, filled with white cheddar cheese and served with marinara sauce.


• Itsy Bitsy Sandwiches, a trio of signature sandwiches with Bob-B-Q pulled pork, slow-roasted pot roast and Bob Evans sausage.

The new appetizers are part of Bob Evans' baseball themed "All Star Line Up" for summer, and the restaurant has launched a media campaign focused around baseball.

Appetizers start at $3.99 and will be available chain-wide.

The introduction of the appetizers also coincides with the return of Bob-B-Q, made with the restaurant's very own Bob Evans Wildfire Sauce. The Bob-B-Q includes Bob-B-Q Baby Back Ribs, Bob-B-Q Chicken Knife & Fork Sandwich, Bob Evans Wildfire Chicken Salad and Bob-B-Q Oven-Roasted Chicken.

The restaurant chain used TasteCasting.com, a service that organizes a group of Internet savvy consumers to review the new menu offerings, and then have them broadcast their thoughts and gather feedback through social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, et al.

Bob Evans restaurants have some 569 family restaurants in 18 states east of the Rockies, and also operate 140 Mimi's Cafe restaurants west of the Rockies.

Source: Press Release

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Kettle Brand Potato Chips - Jalapeno - Review

Kettle Brand Potato Chips introduced this new Jalapeno variety earlier this month, timed with Cinco de Mayo.

Here's what Kettle has to say about this new flavor...

"Kettle Brand Jalapeno Potato Chips strike the perfect balance between fresh, well-rounded flavor and the simple heat of green, spicy jalapeno peppers. A fiery, festive flavor with a Kettle Brand twist, these all natural Jalapeno potato chips are easy to eat with a satisfying heat that sneaks up on you. Paired with an ice cold cerveza, these chips are a delicious fiesta in a bag."

The company sent me a sample bag for review.

Taste

Well, these chips are not exactly hot. And, they're not exactly spicy. They do have a low degree of heat, but it's so low that it only creates a tingle in my mouth. I do eat a lot of spicy foods, so maybe for others these chips could be construed as hot.

But they don't have any jalapeno flavor to them.


They still have that same crunchy, crispy, thick potato chip goodness that you come to expect from kettle cooked potato chips, and they have that same signature flavor that the Kettle Brand puts into them.

It has the split second sweetness off the surface that the Kettle Brand always seems to give you, and it gives off that light potato flavor, and light saltiness.

Overall, what I'm getting from these chips is the same flavor of regular Kettle Brand Potato Chips, but with a faint spicy heat.

These Jalapeno variety chips are selling in grocery stores all over the USA as of this writing.

If you can't find them locally, buy them online from Kettle's website...
http://www.buykettlechips.com

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